Actuate e.

Reporting
An Overview
Syed Amzad Ali
What is e.Reporting?
e.Reporting : The process of summarizing and
clearly communicating the data collected through
various means through the use of web browsers.

Actuate is an enterprise reporting solution
introduced by Actuate Corporation in 1996.
Actuate e.Reporting Suite
e.Report Designer.
Developers use e.Report Designer to create basic
Actuate Reports.
e.Reporting System
Administrators use the e.Reporting System to manage,
generate, and control access to Actuate reports and
other files in a Report Encyclopedia volume.
e.Reporting System includes:
Actuate e.Reporting Suite
- e.Reporting Server,
The underlying server software that manages Encyclopedia
volumes.
- Management Console,
A web application that administrators use to maintain
Encyclopedia volume user profiles, reports, and report
generation schedules.
- Actuate Active Portal,
The interface between a web server and Encyclopedia volumes
that gives users web browser access to e.reports.
Actuate e.Reporting Suite
e.Report Designer Professional.
Developers use this object oriented application to create
advanced reports.
e.Report Designer Java Edition.
A Java enabled Report Designer.
e.Spreadsheet Designer.
A report designer to make spreadsheet like reports.
Actuate architecture
Actuate Report Generation Process
Data sources
XML
ODBC
EJBs
Java Objects
COM objects
CORBA/DCOM
Ascii flat files
Excel files
Word documents
Etc

Databases
Oracle
Sybase
IBM DB2
Informix Online
MS SQLServer
Progress
Etc
EJB
COM
e.RD Pro
ROD
ROX
Report Server
DHTML
e.Spreadsheets
VTF
Encyclopedia
Management
Console
Create Manage Deliver
e.Report Designer Professional
Fast report design development
and maintenance
Report development wizard
Wizard cues
Content templates
Visual design
Simple database connections
Sorting and grouping tools
Component-based report development
Visual layout
Referencing and subclassing
components

Replaces complex htp and htf
packages which were used to
generate report earlier.
Decrease the turnout time of
the report.
Provide more control over
report and makes report more
user friendly.
KEY FEATURES USE
Development power and
precision
-Actuate Basic
-Universal page layout
-Data access flexibility
-Output format flexibility
Personalized, interactive, actionable
reports
Flexible report distribution
Browser scripting control
Page-level security
Intelligent Report navigability

KEY FEATURES
e.Report Designer Professional
e.Report Designer Professional
Report development wizard
e.Report Designer Pro offers a step-by-step wizard to guide developers
through creating new e.Report designs. Both data access and layout are
handled by the wizard, which generates a finished e.Report that's ready
to run.

Advantage : Rapid Application Development
e.RD Pro Features
Wizard cues - Visual cues in the design wizard enable developers to
preview what the content will look like as they make changes to design
options.

e.RD Pro Features
Content templates - e.Report Designer Pro supports fast
deployment with preconfigured e.Report templates. These user-defined
templates can specify everything from corporate standard formatting to
data access operations, giving Web developers a convenient starting
point for fulfilling common report needs while ensuring consistency
from design to design.

e.RD Pro Features
Visual design - e.Report Designer Pro supports codeless report
design. After creating content with the wizard, users can adjust layout
and add new objects using simple drag-and-drop operations.

e.RD Pro Features
Simple database connections With e.Report Designer Pro,
database connections can be preconfigured so that users are spared
from having to know and enter complex database connection
information.

e.RD Pro Features
Sorting and grouping tools - Re-entrant tools allow users to
visually add and change sorting and grouping of the e.Report design.

e.RD Pro Features
e.RD Pro Features
Component-based report development e.Report Designer
Pro allows you to publish customized components in libraries.
These componentswhich specify report elements and methods
that control the components' behaviorcan be reused across
multiple designs, which enables you to create new designs faster,
while you ensure consistency from design to design. In addition,
you can offer components to your end-users to enable them to
develop and customize their own reports to extend the reports you
provide.
Visual layout Developers can design enterprise reports simply by
dragging and dropping data and formatting components in a visual
development environment. Most designs can be completed simply by
setting properties that control component behavior and appearance.

e.RD Pro Features
Referencing and subclassing components With e.Report
Designer Pro, report components are reused across designs through
referencing or subclassing. Developers can maintain library-based
designs by making changes only in the source library - all designs that
reference that library component will automatically be updated.
Developers also have the flexibility to override certain characteristics of
a component by subclassing the component from the library, so that
they can change characteristics they want, while inheriting all other
characteristics.

e.RD Pro Features
Actuate Basic e.Report Designer Pro features Actuate Basic, a
programming language with object-oriented extensions. Actuate Basic
enables you to override methods associated with components, so that
you have maximum control over your Information Delivery options.
Using Actuate Basic, developers can precisely control every aspect of
enterprise reports, including structure, content, data retrieval
operations, formatting, and delivery.
e.RD Pro Features
Universal Page Layout e.Report Designer Pro's Universal Page
Layout capabilities enable you to create reports that meet nearly any
formatting requirements to create nearly any look and feel.
e.RD Pro Features
Data access flexibility With e.Report Designer Professional, you
can develop report designs that display information from practically
any data source, including
transaction databases,
business logic layers,
data warehouses,
flat files, and many more.
e.RD Pro Features
Output format flexibility e.Report Designer Professional lets you
create report designs that can be output as
high-resolution DHTML pages,
standard HTML pages,
Adobe PDF documents,
or XML content.
This means that your end-users can have reports any way they want
them, and can even print reports that look precisely the same on paper
as they do on the Web site. For XML, e.Report Designer Professional
enables developers to assign properties to components to add XML
tags to specific fields so that the resulting reports can conform to any
DTD. As a result, you can create a single report design that delivers
information for both visual and electronic consumption.
e.RD Pro Features
Flexible report distribution - Reports created with e.Report
Designer Pro can be deployed to the Web as on-demand or as saved
content. Automatic versioning, archiving and scheduled generation
enable Actuate reports to be distributed to a large user base with ease.
e.RD Pro Features
Browser Scripting Control Using e.Report Designer
Professional's Browser Scripting Control, you can easily create
actionable reports for your end-users. The Browser Scripting Control
enables you to create forms-based reports through which users can
specify preferences for requesting new information.
e.RD Pro Features
Page-Level Security During the report design phase, developers
can assign properties to report components that determine which users
can access information contained in the report, through the Page-Level
Security function. This enables end-users to automatically receive
personalized views of enterprise reports based on their identity.

e.RD Pro Features
Report navigability Actuate's unique SmartSearch and automatic
NavBar generation features are automatically available with all
e.Reports developed with e.Report Designer Professional, with no
added coding or other effort required. These two interactive features
make it easy for users to find precisely the information they need.

e.RD Pro Features
Common Acronyms
Acronym Definition
DHTML Dynamic Hypertext Markup Language
GUI Graphical User Interface
ODBC Open Database Connectivity
SQL Structured Query Language
XML Extensible Markup Language
XSL Extensible Stylesheet Language
XSLT Extensible Stylesheet Language Transformation
ROD Report Object Design - contains the report design
ROI Report Object Instance - contains the viewable report
ROX Report Object Executable file - contains the instructions for
generating and viewing a report object